Thursday, September 20, 2012

End of Watch Review

Considering it has such a simple concept, Dan Ayer’s (who
wrote “Training Day”) “End of Watch” is a surprisingly enthralling police
picture. It zips along from one beat to the next with ease; no scene or portion
ever drags. It’s exciting and tense. There are scenes that are downright
shocking and ones that engage you emotionally. It’s an intimate portrait of the
day-to-day life of regular beat cop. And Ayer uses the ever so popular found
footage device to give the film another predicted layer of realism. With that
said however, it’s also this plot device—or gimmick—that holds “End of Watch”
back. I’m not saying it completely ruins it but with this drawback Ayer’s movie
doesn’t reach its full potential.

“End of Watch” revolves around two young cocky and naïve cops,
Brian (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike (Michael Pena) in South Central Los Angeles --probably
the most dangerous place for a policeman-- as they make their rounds on daily
patrols. We see them interacting with each other, with numerous street hoods as
well as other cops. Ayer creates a playful and convincing dynamic between the two.

A number of the scenes take place inside their squad car as
they playfully rib each other about their races or their love lives, and talk
seriously about family and their futures. It’s all done in a believable way;
Gyllenhaal and Pena play off of each other wonderfully, saying dialogue that
feels completely genuine. In fact most of their scenes look ad-libed. The most
pleasant surprise of this movie is how much character development there is. And
it’s the dynamic between these two cops that drives “End of Watch.” Hell, it’s
practically the only thing. The whole movie is the development of their
friendship.

As good as all that is though, the film still has one major
unavoidable flaw: the found footage aspect turns out to be unnecessary. When I
said originally that “End of Watch” is a found footage film that was only a
partial truth. There are cameras in the squad car, Brian has his own video
camera that he takes around to every crime scene and situation they run into
(for a film school project), both Mike and Brian have mini cameras attached to
their police uniforms and then there are a couple other assorted cameras
throughout. But then there are many shots, shot in that handheld style that
would be pretty much impossible for anyone in the movie to capture. So really
what we’ve got are two similar but different methods of filmmaking: found footage
and Cinema Verite, two methods that work fine on their own but separately they undermine
one another.

Why not just shoot the whole thing in Cinema Verite style,
if you’re only going to half acknowledge the found footage? Found footage
movies can be fun but they’re also extremely limited in terms of narrative and
character scope. That’s why they usually don’t hold up on repeat viewings. “End
of Watch” is trying to be more ambitious, casting a wider net with its
narrative and characters—the duo runs into trouble with the Mexican Drug Cartel,
and we see the story partially from the POV of the main bad guys-- trying to
create a greater world that movies like “Paranormal Activity” simply can’t. And
the additional incorporation of the found footage holds “End of Watch” back
from reaching the level of excellence it could have easily achieved.

But, it’s easy to get caught up in the exciting, suspenseful
and fun experience that is “End of Watch,” and the ending, while expected,
still packs an emotional punch because you’ve come to know these characters
really well. “End of Watch” is a solid police drama/thriller, a hard thing to
come by these days, despite the fact that it isn’t as fully realized as it
could have been.